This invention relates to briquetting machines; more specifically to machines for compacting a charge of metal chips into a briquette.
Metal chips accumulate during the machining of metal workpieces. Because machining processes typically utilize a cutting fluid to lubricate and cool the workpiece during a given operation, the machining processes inevitably generate metal chips permeated with cutting fluid. To minimize production costs, it is economically desirable to use a compactor to separate the cutting fluid from the metal chips to facilitate a re-use of the cutting fluid during subsequent machining processes.
Furthermore, it is economically desirable to salvage the metal chips themselves to allow for their recycle and re-use. Compaction of the metal chips into dense briquettes thus facilitates an improved handling and transportation of the metal chips during the recycling process.
Briquetting machines for compacting metal chips have been proposed and constructed in the past. Such machines essentially comprise a feed hopper that introduces the metal chips into a feed chamber, with a compaction chamber, or die, located downstream for compressing with a ram the metal chips into a briquette. A typical prior briquette compactor utilizes a single die during the compaction process. The inner diameter of the die is sized to accept the insertion of the ram.
During the compaction process, frictional forces necessarily develop between the chips and the inner wall of the die. These frictional forces cause wear on the inner diameter of the die, thus causing a loss of the close tolerance desired between the die and the ram outer diameter. Because a single die subject to repeated compaction cycles is subject to wear, an operator must incur added costs for replacing worn dies.
Prior art briquetting machines fail to provide a compaction process that prolongs die life by reducing the wear of a given die. Thus, there continues to be a need for a method and apparatus for compacting metal charges efficiently while reducing the costs of die replacement. The present invention meets these desires.
The present invention provides a novel and improved briquetting machine which provides advantages in construction, mode of operation, efficiency and use.
To achieve the foregoing, the present briquetting machine includes a ram that co-acts with a die gate that provides plural die cavities. The die gate is carried on an elongate frame aligned along a horizontal axis. The die gate is movably mounted on the frame so as to be shifted from a first position to a second position. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the die gate has two through bores disposed therein. The two bores are located side-by-side across the face of the gate and are movable along an axis transverse to that of the frame to positions in registry with the ram.
An endplate is fixably mounted to the frame, adjacent to the back side of the movable die gate and co-acts therewith to define a die cavity. The endplate is of a size less than that of the die gate and is juxtaposed relative to only one of the bores. The die gate, together with the endplate, define a die cavity sized to receive the ram when juxtaposed relative to one another.
The ram is also mounted to the frame, oriented substantially parallel to the longitudinal frame axis, and is proximal to the front face of the die gate. The ram is slidably receivable into one of the two bores and against the endplate when the die gate is in the first of two positions, and is slidably receivable into the other of the two bores and against the endplate when the die gate is in the second of two positions.
A loader for metal chips to be compacted is affixed to the frame. The loader is adapted to dispense a charge of metal chips at a location between the ram and the die gate. The ram, when actuated, compresses the dispensed charge of metal chips into a die in registry therewith to form a briquette.
Two ejectors are mounted to the frame, each aligned para-axial with the frame and the ram. One of the two ejectors is adapted for insertion into one of the two bores when the die gate is in its first of two positions, expelling a formed briquette from the respective bore. The other of the two ejectors is adapted for insertion into the other of the two bores when the die gate is in its second of two positions, expelling a formed briquette from the other respective bore.
Because the die gate defines a pair of die cavities disposed therein, each die cavity is subject to only half of the compression cycles of a die of a single-die, prior art compactor. Thus, production efficiencies are increased and the costs for replacing dies in the present invention due to wear are reduced. Other advantages and features of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, the drawings, and the appended claims.